Blogs

Went for a stroll around Nuku'alofa on Friday and stocked up on fresh fruit and veges from the large produce markets. Spent the night at Pangaimotu Island and treated ourselves to fish and chips (tuna!)at Big Mama's Yacht Club. Had a nice sail around the eastern side of Tongatapu on Saturday and anchored at Malinoa Island for the night. This is an uninhabited island and marine reserve. Crystal clear water, snorkled around the beautiful coral, which is teaming with fish of all shapes, colours and sizes. Strolled on the white sandy beach, easily circumnavigating this tiny island and gathered fresh coconuts from the shore. On Sunday we sailed north to Kelefesia Island, another wonderful snorkeling spot with large coral reefs extending on both sides of our anchorage. Sat in our bean bags on deck watching the sun go down while we sipped on Pina Coladas made from fresh coconut milk. Dinner was fresh Mahimahi steaks - Karl landed another one during our sail to the island! This morni ng Karl made pancakes for breakfast and Heather is baking some fresh bread for lunch. Time for another snorkel now, the water is 26.5 degrees, so quite bearable! Life is good.
--

Tusi 2 left Marsden Cove yesterday at 1300 heading for Minerva then Lautoka. After a fast ride last night, over 9 knots for short periods, with a 20-25knot westerly, the wind has now (1400 Wednesday) backed to the SSW and dropped to about 15 so the crew is soaking up the sun.

Parko, my good sailing buddy from Whanga, always refers to Rayfiki as that Kick Arse Yacht. Well today it lived up to its name. Sitting up on the tramp in the sun as we clipped along at 10 k with a true wind speed averaging 15k was fantastic. I even got a screenshot of us doing 10k in a TWS of 10.3k a peak of 18 was great. The seas were calm with about a 2 to 3 m swell with a long period so that was pleasant and helpful. All crew just enjoyed the shear excitement of the speed and like an albatross we seemed to skim over the top of the sea. By 4.30 the wind kept coming up, so first went the screecher, and so ended a most pleasant day in the sun. We just kept reefing down: next came the main and then the headsail. Unfortunately with the wind has come a lumpy sea so we just tootled along at a more sedate rate.

We have thrown the mooring lines in Denerau and came out to Musket Cove today. It is too easy to spend money in Denerau with the good food and bars at our doorstep. We had a good sail over and dropped anchor just outside the mooring area. Tomorrow we will go explore all the new alterations to the Island Bar and surrounds. Our plans are to chill here for a few days and then may start moving slowly north to Savu Savu. We have no plans in concrete so it is just “let’s see how we feel in the morning” scenario.
Monday afternoon saw us catch the bus up to Lautoka and visit our friendly dentist. I had chipped a tooth at Christmas time and he has now done the preparation work for the crown, which will be here in about 10 days. Good to get that visit over at the beginning of the season.
The water temperature at the moment is still 29 degrees but the wind brings down the air temperature, so it is a bit cool after having a swim.